Looking for facts in a sea of weird, misleading, confusing and downright false information? Ask here! I am an ex-Scientologist so I will be able to provide actual facts. I will give you straight information, not church PR.

Because of various problems with Blogger, I've copied everything as of November 26, 2012 over to WordPress. The new location is Ask the Scientologist. I am not deleting this blog and will still accept comments and answer questions here too, but any new articles will appear at the WordPress location. I apologize if this causes any problems.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Very recently, the basic Scientology RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force) documents have been leaked. This is great news. In the excellent report on Scientology's RPF, the author, Stephen A. Kent, PhD, notes that it is impossible to do a complete analysis of the RPF, in part because these key documents were not available for study. The availability of these documents will help.

However, for those eagerly awaiting the "smoking gun" regarding the horribly abusive practice of Scientology's RPF, the documents will be somewhat of a disappointment. Hubbard was very concerned about his image, so he was always careful about what he committed to writing. I know this seems odd, given what he did say publicly, but it is true. Do not expect the worst of the RPF practices to be advocated over Hubbard's signature.

However, the documents are, nonetheless, quite revealing.

Let me first step aside from this subject for a bit, to explain a few things.

First, it is important to understand exactly what is the basic, core belief of a true Scientologist.

The true Scientologist believes that we are all trapped in this universe; that we used to be "free" and powerful but we have gone down a "dwindling spiral" of degradation, life after life, eventually, after trillions of years, becoming powerless and mired in suffering; that L. Ron Hubbard developed the only road out of this trap back to "real freedom" and power; that the Church of Scientology is the only valid source of this technology; and that we will only get this one chance to make it out.

This is such an important belief that it, essentially, defines what makes a Scientologist. It is important to understand this concept because it explains how the Church of Scientology and David Miscavige can have such power over all Scientologists.

If someone really, really believes they have been trapped and degraded for trillions of years -- just the idea of that -- they will become desperate to escape. If they truly believe this idea, they would do almost anything to escape. And they do believe. And they really will do almost anything.

This is the power of the Church of Scientology. They hold the threat of denying Scientologists the "road out" over their heads all the time. Kicking someone out of the church and declaring them "Suppressive" is, in Scientologists' eyes, literally a "fate worse than death."

It will be difficult for someone who doesn't believe all this to understand how powerful this threat is. This is the threat to ruin the person forever. Not just this year. Not just "this lifetime" but forever. For True Believers, it is an ultimate threat.

You wonder why Scientologists put up with so much? You wonder why they voluntarily shut their eyes to all the abuses? You wonder why they give so much money, until their debt crushes them? This is why.

And so, we come back to the RPF. The RPF is several orders of magnitude worse than anything that public Scientologists have to experience, and yet the threat of the church denying someone the "road out" is so powerful that most of those ordered to the RPF do agree to go. They do so "voluntarily". But what is never stated is that they are under this ultimate threat when they "volunteer". In reality, the choice is, "go to the RPF or be ruined forever." For a True Believer, the RPF is the lesser of the two evils.

But I would not call this "voluntary." Not with that kind of threat.

So, finally, we get back to the leaked RPF documents.

I actually haven't had the time to read over these in detail. I hope scholars will do a good job of that. The whole subject of the RPF is presented, of course, as "the benign and generous Church of Scientology is giving you hopeless wretches a last chance to redeem yourselves." It isn't punishment. It's for your own good. Bla, bla, bla. But underneath those words, the bones of the prison camp are showing.

There is a document in the pack that shows how aware the church is that the RPF is a legal problem. The document "RPF Series 19 - WAIVERS FOR THE RPF" states:

Two waivers are to be signed. The first is called the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RPF ASSIGNMENT AND ELECTION TO PROCEED. The individual will be given this form for signature upon recept of his assignment and before routing onto the RPF. This will be handled by the HCO* of his org. No one may be admitted into the RPF who has not signed this form.

After the person has arrived in the RPF and has studied the RPF FOs†, he is then given the APPLICATION FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE RPF AND GENERAL RELEASE. This document may only be signed after the person has a full understanding of what the RPF program involves and has read all of the RPF Series and attests he fully understands the series.

*HCO -- Hubbard Communications Office -- is a division of the organization involved with ethics.†FOs -- Flag Orders -- An issue distributed only within the Sea Organization.

Note here that the person can't even read the RPF documents unless they have signed the first legal waiver. I don't see any copy of these waivers in the leaked documents, but I can imagine what they say. They undoubtedly say the person agrees that this is all voluntary, no coercion was used, the church isn't responsible for anything that happens, the RPF member is totally responsible for everything, the RPF member promises not to tell anyone anything, etc., etc.

I am not a lawyer, but I'd think that such waivers have very limited legal validity. As with many of the church legal documents that Scientologists are required to sign, it is more for the intimidation of members than for any real legal clout. You simply cannot sign away your legal rights like that, and certainly not prior to a crime being committed against you. That would be outrageous, yet that's pretty much the idea of the waivers.

From the first hand accounts of those who have been on the RPF, the actual implementation of the RPF is far worse than the documents suggest. Not to say that the documents don't describe a horrible operation, but, it appears, the documents are the "best" it could get. The actuality is much, much worse. The physical duress is worse, the food is worse, the sleep is worse, the abuse is much worse.

The introductory issue "THE RPF SERIES FLAG ORDERS" contains these revealing paragraphs:

Never before has any organization provided a means for members who have failed the trust of the group to actually redeem themselves and terminatedly handle the cause of their destructive actions. Only the Sea Organization, using LRH's technology, extends this opportunity to its group members through the Rehabilitation Project Force program.

The objective of the RPF program is to restore to the individual his value to the group and to himself and to free him forever from any compulsion to commit harmful acts against his dynamics.

This is quite revealing because it isn't quite true. This isn't the first organization to offer such an "opportunity". This whole description of how good the RPF is, is very reminiscent of the Vietnamese and Chinese "Re-education Camps". These were "benevolently" provided by the Communist government as an opportunity for errant citizens to redeem themselves and "handle" the reasons they "failed the group".

Yes, the erring Communist members were "re-educated" until they saw the errors of their ways and were then "free forever" from the compulsion to individuate and harm the group.

The RPF isn't just vaguely similar, it is strikingly similar to those "re-education camps". They are all labor camps. They all require the prisoners to intensely study the doctrine. They all require frequent confession. They all require isolation from the rest of society. They all emphasize "the group is all, the individual is nothing." In all of them, the prisoners are understood to have betrayed the group but the group is benevolently giving them one last chance to redeem themselves. They all have no set duration, the abuse continues for years until the powers-that-be are satisfied the camp member is sufficiently re-educated so as to not cause any more trouble.

These, by the way, are parts of standard brainwashing techniques. Physical duress, physical restraint, isolation/degradation, frequent confession, heavy indoctrination, poor nutrition, little sleep, negation of the individual, and so on, are ways to break the individual and make them susceptible and pliant.

Hubbard wrote, in his Brainwashing Manual in 1955:

Experiments on German prisoners have lately demonstrated that only after seventy days of filthy food, little sleep, and nearly untenable quarters, that the least motion toward a prisoner would bring about a state of shock beyond his endurance threshold, and would cause him to hypnotically receive anything said to him. Thus, it is possible, in an entire stockade of prisoners, to the number of thousands, to bring about a state of complete servile obedience, and without the labour of personally addressing each one, to pervert their loyalties, and implant in them adequate commands to insure their future conduct, even when released to their own people.

Among the documents, RPF Series 23R, "RPF--RIGHTS AND RESTRICTIONS", is worthy of special attention. A thorough reading is quite eye-opening.

This issue includes the seemingly benign sentence:

The person has the option of doing the RPF and adhering to its rules, or not accepting the opportunity for redemption and terminating his membership in the Sea Organization.

Once again, it is key to understand what this means to the new RPF member. It isn't a choice between the RPF and leaving. Leaving includes declaration as a "Suppressive Person" and all that that means. This is not a simple "goodbye and good luck" situation. The choice is, as far as the errant Sea Org member is concerned, do the RPF or have your entire future destroyed.

Further in this document, note the rights. These are, basically, the RPF member has the "right" to work and the "right" of access to the doctrine and time to study/apply it. Those things are "allowed".

Note the restrictions. These are draconian, to put it mildly. In summary:

No time off. No free time, no vacation, no weekends, no holidays, no evenings. Zero time off. Every single day is a full day of work, study and confession. For years and years.

Confined to "base", except on "authorized work cycles" when they would be under guard. That is, they are imprisoned on the Church of Scientology property.

1/4 pay. Since Sea Org members get a few dollars a week, this is, essentially, nothing.

Completely isolated from everybody else.

Cannot originate any communication to anyone outside the RPF. No letters, no phone calls, nothing. According to this document, they will be allowed to answer letters from family, but it is questionable whether that actually happens. If such a thing were allowed, it would be carefully censored to omit any mention of the RPF.

Must wear a distinctive uniform and must run everywhere.

May not enter staff or public areas. May not use public or staff bath or restroom facilities.

"May not have with him in the RPF any radios, TV, taped music, musical instruments, magazines, novels, games, cameras or any entertainment or luxury items." In practice, this last has been extended to cell phones (of course), computers and, well, everything else. One assumes that singing, laughing, smiling and such are quickly suppressed in the RPF.

Do you get a picture of how debased and degraded people on the RPF are? These people are "scum," unfit to associate with decent people. Do you see that this was the unstated, but obvious, intention of these rules?

The leaked RPF documents are fascinating reading. However, no matter how bad you picture the RPF when reading these documents, the reality is much, much worse.

This is one of the worst crimes perpetrated by the Church of Scientology. I hope that the leak of these documents is another step closer to the eradication of this horrible operation.-

Saturday, July 26, 2008

I discovered, over the years, that when I found myself spending a good portion my time thinking up reasons why "it really is OK that I did that", it was always a sure sign I reallyshouldn't have done that.

Doesn't make any difference how very, very good my justifications were, if I found myself looking for reasons why something is OK, deep down, I knew, it wasn't.

Which is why I find it so very interesting that so much of any discussion with a Scientologist ends up being about all those wonderful justifications they have for what the Church of Scientology is doing and has done over the years.

And, oh! Do they have good ones! Hundreds of them. They don't make much sense, there isn't any proof for many of their justifications, but they cherish them and defend them with great passion. You risk their terrible anger if you dare question any of these vital justifications!

Their primary justification is that those people have been out to destroy the church since before it even existed. Oh, yes! Those people. You know, the evil psychiatrists, teamed up with the evil drug companies. Now, you do have to ignore the fact that they have never, ever, ever come up with any proof of this, but they do love this one. It's the church's favorite justification for their bad behavior. Go ahead, ask them -- but don't ask them for any proof, none exists.

Another really nice justification is that the evil U.S. Government with their CIA, FBI, IRS, XYZ agencies are plotting against the Church of Scientology. Oh, yes. Plotting. (Of course, the fact that the FBI raid on the church found tons of evidence of the worst domestic spying operation ever against the U.S. Government which was carried out by the church, and that L. Ron Hubbard fled the country--must be ignored.) No, no, it's the government that is evil, not the church!

How about the famous International Bankers conspiracy, mentioned by Hubbard in his "OT III - Wall of Fire" tape. These wealthy folk are, even today, funding all the anti-Scientology activities. Oh yes. No proof. No evidence. But "Ron said it" so this one is a keeper. (Hmmm, there are a lot of critics who are still waiting to receive those checks. LOL!)

"Other religions have done it!" This is a true classic. I used this one myself when I was growing up, "But Joey did it too!" The way I work it out, it seems like because other religions have committed crimes, fraud, abuses, lied, trampled people's rights, the Church of Scientology gets to do those things too. Say what? You'll see Internet trolls using a variation of this one: "Why single out just the Church of Scientology? All religions are bad!" Somehow, the logic of this one escapes me.

"How can you spend any time criticizing the Church of Scientology when children are starving in war-torn Slobovia?" (Or any other horrendous things happening in the world.) What the church is desperately trying to do is distract and divert attention from their crimes. They are saying we are only allowed to criticize one thing at a time -- and the Church of Scientology isn't the worst. Sorry, we're multi-tasking critics! The fact that something truly evil is happening somewhere else, does not give the Church of Scientology a free pass to do a lot of not-quite-so-evil stuff.

"All those who dare to criticize the Church of Scientology are just anti-religious [or bigoted or mean] people." It is rather difficult for the church to explain why these "anti-religious, bigoted, mean" people are only criticizing the management of the Church of Scientology, not Scientology, not any other religion, just the organization of the Church of Scientology. This "justification" isn't working too well outside of the church. Internally, to Scientologists, it might be working just fine.

Those damaged by the Church of Scientology "pulled it in". This is a Scientology twisted version of karma, where the victims cause the bad things (meaning being screwed up by the church) to happen to themselves because they were "bad". Note that this is never applied to all the bad things that happen to the church -- no, they never "pull it in"!

We're on a mission from L. Ron Hubbard to save the universe. If all else fails, this justifies everything. If you're saving the universe, well, that's pretty much a blank check to do any crimes, abuses, fraud, lies, anything you want! I think this might be David Miscavige's favorite.

And there are many more. Get into a discussion about Church of Scientology crimes with a True Believer and you will get bogged down in endless justify-justify-justify. Do you think they feel guilty? Yes, they do. Their endless justifications show it. Many of these justifications, those directly from Hubbard, are built into the Scientology belief system.

So, it seems quite obvious to me, from all the evidence, that the church knows, deep down, that what they're doing is wrong. They obviously know they are breaking the law, since they work so hard to cover it all up. They know they are trampling peoples rights to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion because of their endless justifications. They know they need lots of justifications for what they've done.

An organization that uses criminal means to carry out their plans, like the Church of Scientology does, is, by definition, a criminal organization.

That's the bottom line. Church of Scientology is a criminal organization.

Boy, do they need lots of justifications to try to make that come out right.-

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Scientology has a serious problem between itself and the "wog" (non-Scientology) world. Scientology has very strict rules, specified by L. Ron Hubbard in his "Policy Letters", that the church "must follow". And quite a number of these policies require actions which are against the law, are severely frowned upon by civilized society, or both.

Following Hubbard's death and David Miscavige's takeover of the church, the situation has only gotten worse. Miscavige has tended to focus his attentions toward the more disreputable plans and activities laid out by Hubbard, and has been darkly creative in that direction.

And this is the main problem that the Church of Scientology has. Internally, secretly, they are compelled by Hubbard's policies and David Miscavige's orders to commit crimes and to treat people in quite despicable ways. But that makes it extremely hard to get along with the non-Scientology world.

Now, of course, they could stop doing the illegal and the socially unacceptable things, but they don't think like that. Scientologists, you see, are superior beings. They don't mold their actions to fit into society. Absolutely not! Scientologists are supposed to mold society to be compliant with the Church of Scientology! That's what Hubbard taught.

This is part of the Scientology Superiority attitude. They are so much more advanced than you. Their goals take precedence over anything you might be doing. They are so ethical and superior that they don't have to follow mere wog laws and rules. Oh yes, you are a "primitive people on a backward planet" and they will help you, but only if you're good enough to deserve their help. If not, well, you can be "disposed of quietly and without sorrow," according to Hubbard.

Unfortunately for Scientologists, wog laws are not designed for such superior beings as they. While wog laws do provide recourse when someone lies about you, there is no recourse to stop someone who tells the truth about you. If someone says truthful but negative things about Hubbard, Miscavige, Dianetics or Scientology, wog law actually protects them!

Wogs! It is impossible for the Church of Scientology to get along with them. What the church needs to get accomplished -- suppressing negative information, taking over school systems, taking over governments -- is just made so much harder by wogs! They are always looking over the church's shoulder, bringing up stupid rules and laws that say you can't do things like that. Don't they know Scientology is the answer to all their problems? Don't they know that all this is for their own good?

If wogs were reasonable about all this, the Church of Scientology could get a lot more done! But no, the non-Scientology world keeps holding onto their sovereignty and their silly rights and keeps blocking the Church of Scientology's progress. So, obviously, to avoid such pesky interference, Miscavige needs to hide what he's doing. Obviously, Miscavige needs to be even more covert about what his church is actually doing.

And that requires "Fair Game", the Hubbard authorization that, when they declare someone a "Suppressive Person", that person "[m]ay be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."

And, since there is no strict criteria for declaring someone a "Suppressive Person" -- there is no "due process", there is no defense -- Miscavige can, and does, declare people "Suppressive" for trivial reasons, or for no discernible reason at all. Then, those Suppressives are "fair game" for anything Miscavige wants to do.

The Suppressive Person declare, combined with the "Fair Game" authorization, is part of what gives Scientologists and the church the idea that the can do anything they want to forward their plans for taking over the world.

Understand the very root of all this trouble: The Church of Scientology must hide what their plans are, because those plans are completely unacceptable to the non-Scientology world. The Church of Scientology must hide what they actually do because those actions are often illegal or, at best, socially unacceptable. Hence, the secrecy. Hence the outrage when their secrets are revealed. Hence the harassment of critics. Hence the fear of discovery. Hence the draconian methods to forbid Scientologists from gathering any information from any source outside of the church.

This isn't the first group in history to believe they are saving the world and, therefore, "the ends justify the means." It isn't the first, and it won't be the last. But, fortunately for the rest of the world, the evil that such groups do inevitably destroys the group.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

If I told you that I had a "Magic Wishing Pebble" that would grant me every wish, would you believe me?

If I said it gave me super powers, allowed me to live forever, made me cause over the whole universe and much more, would you believe in my Magic Wishing Pebble?

If I said I had a bunch of these pebbles, and I would sell you one, would you buy one?

If you asked me to show you the pebble, and I said, "No, it's confidential," would you still want to buy it?

If you asked me to demonstrate the powers of my Magic Wishing Pebble, show it granting me some wishes, and I said, "No, you're not ready for this sort of thing, you can only experience it after you've bought your own," would you still want one of my incredible Magic Wishing Pebbles?

What if I had a list of hundreds of other people who had bought the Magic Wishing Pebble from me, but they also refused to demonstrate any special benefits from their pebbles, and just spoke in vague terms about "feeling more myself", would you go ahead and join them in buying a wonderful Magic Wishing Pebble from me?

And what if I told you the price was $300,000.00, in advance. Or more, if I'm slow in delivering it to you.

And what if I refused to sell it to you until you signed a long contract which said, essentially, "Buyer agrees the seller has made no promises whatsoever as to performance or even existence of the 'product' being sold to buyer . Buyer agrees that the seller is not responsible for anything at all regarding the 'product'."

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Let's see, when I think of great leaders, I think the greatest of all lead by example. They are the first ones to risk it all, they ask nothing of their followers that they themselves wouldn't do. They lead from in front and are an example of all that is good in the group.

Nope! Leading by example is definitely not Miscavige's style. He demands long, long hours from all staff, with poor food, very poor pay, no rewards and no benefits for his workers. His staff sleeps in bunk beds or, very often they are forced to sleep under their desks. While he, himself, sets his own hours, has luxurious private quarters with servants, has the very best food and whiskey, $500.00 Egyptian cotton shirts and $3,000.00 suits, his own custom van, private cars, and a $20,000.00 custom motorcycle. He takes multiple vacations every year -- at no cost to himself! Staff pay is around $50.00 per week, if they are lucky (and they often are not so lucky), while Miscavige pulls in over $140,000.00 per year -- with no out of pocket expenses!

Nope! Miscavige is not that kind of leader. So what kind of leader is he?

Well, some very good leaders have lead by inspiration and charisma. These leaders inspire great things from their followers because they have a vision, a force of will, ideals that people just want to support and follow.

Nope! This is not Miscavige's style of leadership either. Actually, Miscavige has no vision he can admit to. His core vision is making money and controlling people, which he can't really admit to publicly. When Miscavige is "running things" in any one of his many offices, he has all the charisma of Attila the Hun. Oh, he can appear to be charming at his grandiose, fanciful events, but every phrase, every smile, every pause-for-applause is carefully scripted and is completely fake. No, charisma is not in Miscavige's skill set.

Nope! So far, we've discovered what kind of leader Miscavige is not. But what kind of leader is he? Let's look further:

Does he lead with courage? Some mighty fine leaders get by with great amounts of courage alone.

Nope, Miscavige is a coward. He is a bully. He beats people up because he knows they can't fight back. He browbeats people because they cannot answer. He struts around -- but only because he is surrounded by a retinue of muscle-boys and sycophants. No, Miscavige has never shown any courage.

Well, how about leading by taking responsibility? Some leaders take on huge amounts of responsibility and excite, in their followers, a desire for more responsibility themselves.

Oh lord, definitely not! Miscavige comes up with these "bright" ideas for things, slams his idea through and then takes absolutely no responsibility for the inevitable disaster that follows. Miscavige's "bright" ideas always cause failure and inevitably result in things getting much, much worse. But whatever happens, it is never his fault! He's never responsible for the disasters directly caused by his plans! He blames anyone and everyone else, and metes out punishment by the truckload -- usually by sending his targets to the church's private prison camp. But no matter how many people Miscavige blames for his failures, he keeps failing.

So how does David Miscavige lead the Church of Scientology? He uses these:

Intimidation: He yells, threatens, insults and abuses.

Lies: He will tell any lie to get what he wants. He tricks, he lies, he fools people.

Beatings: He likes to hit, choke, slap, punch. But only when he has his muscle-boys with him. He especially likes to attack people without warning. He smiles as he does it.

Punishment: At the Int. Base there are many levels of punishment. You can lose your pay, your time off, your meals, your rights to go home and sleep, to see and talk to your family, to take a bath, to get medical attention. These and many more "privileges" can be and are denied by Miscavige and his henchmen, for some minor infraction or for no infraction at all. Note that there are not, and have never been, any balancing "rewards" for good work. Miscavige has used up all the rewards on himself.

RPF: The "Rehabilitation Project Force", a private prison at a number of primary Sea Org bases, where those who are to be punished are forced to do manual labor, with poor food and little sleep, and they must engage in endless "confession" sessions, for years, many years. Some, who "know too much", will, apparently, never be released.

SP Hall: The nickname for a large room at the Int. Base where Miscavige has locked up many of the prior leadership of the Church of Scientology. Their crimes are unknown, but they, too, must endure the never-ending punishments and "confessions" of the RPF.

Sec-checks: All the staff at the Int. Base must endure never-ending "Security Checks", intense sessions of confession, to elicit confessions of any and all transgressions. If a staff member has no transgressions, they are hammered at until they confess to something, anything. Under this intense pressure, most will confess to completely fictitious "crimes", just to escape the room. Oh, but, Miscavige does not, ever, get a Sec Check. Or auditing. Or training.

Degradation: Miscavige loves to read aloud, at staff meetings, everyone's confidential "confessions" from their Sec Checks, the more discreditable, the better. Despite the claims of the church that "auditing sessions are confidential," for Miscavige, they are the joke-of-the-day. Given that these "confessions" are forced and, often, fictitious, the results are truly degrading. But Miscavige has a very good time.

So, that's "leadership" as defined by David Miscavige. That's at the very top of the Church of Scientology. That's the epitome of Scientology in action. That's what Scientologists support, every day.

What kind of a leader is David Miscavige? He leads by psychopathic abuse.-

Sunday, July 13, 2008

For the purposes of this discussion, let's ignore the debate of whether Hubbard's technology "works" or not. Let's just look at what Hubbard put together, and what Miscavige did with it after Hubbard died.

All current Scientologists are supposed to believe that David Miscavige, the current leader of the Church of Scientology is continuing and enhancing the work of L. Ron Hubbard. They must trust what Miscavige has told them.

Let's see what the truth is:

By the time Hubbard died, he had indicated, in his "Keeping Scientology Working" that his tech was complete and must not be altered. He forbade anyone altering, removing or adding to his technology. In addition, he specifically admonished his followers to never, ever reduce training to a set of rote drills.

After Hubbard died, Miscavige completely changed all training in Scientology. He rewrote all the training materials and reduced the training to a set of rote drills.

In the few years before his death, Hubbard presided over the greatest expansion the Church of Scientology had ever seen. This expansion continued, but tapered off after his death.

David Miscavige has orchestrated the greatest decline of membership in the church's 50+ year history. Not just a decline in expansion, a drastic shrinking of the church membership. All of the expansion of Hubbard's years has been wiped out, and a lot more. And the decline continues.

Hubbard created a large and complex administrative structure to oversee the Church of Scientology after he was gone. Included in this structure were many checks and balances to make sure the church management did not stray from the proper administrative path he set up. One top management group was even called the Watchdog Committee. The staff at the International Management base in Hemet was around 1,000 at that time.

Miscavige has completely dismantled all of Hubbard's administrative structure. None of the people who Hubbard put in charge remain. No one who worked with Hubbard remains in any executive position. The staff at the Int. Base are around 400, but many of those have been off post for years, "doing lower conditions" -- endlessly. Anyone still within that executive structure has no power but is simply a "yes-man" to Miscavige's dictatorship.

Hubbard wrote quite detailed instructions on how the Church of Scientology was to be run. These policies were made available to all in over a dozen large volumes. In Hubbard's directions, these policies were to be followed without question by all Churches of Scientology.

Under Miscavige's direction, the many volumes of Hubbard policy letters are no longer in print. Miscavige has decreed that, from now on, his orders are senior to anything written by Hubbard, his orders are to be followed, he can and will order everyone to violate Hubbard's policies and his orders must be carried out.

When Hubbard was in charge, any money to the church was in exchange for a book, a course, a session. Money was always given in exchange for something. Hubbard expressly forbade any "pure donations" where there was no exchange. He was adamant.

Miscavige has introduced and heavily promoted "pure donations" from Scientologists. So much so that Scientologists who do not donate enough pure donations are considered "out ethics" and are punished. Today, the vast majority of the church's income comes from those pure donations that were forbidden by Hubbard.

When Hubbard was in charge, he found that big events--at that time called congresses and held twice a year--artificially boosted church's statistics and then inevitably caused a ruinous drop in church activity. He forbade such big events. The "boom" was artificial and the crash was disastrous.

Miscavige has created six yearly, big events, each one carefully designed to sell something, to artificially boost the church's statistics. When the inevitable crash in statistics occurs as a result, just as predicted by Hubbard, Miscavige blames everyone but himself for the problem that he created by violating Hubbard's directions.

When Hubbard was running things, the local churches were expected to make do with what they had. If they increased the number of people on services, they would make the additional income needed to support that expansion. It was a natural evolution. If the church did not expand, it would get no outside financial help.

Miscavige's idea of "expansion" is to demand that the local Scientologists pony up millions and millions of dollars, buy a big building, come up with millions more to renovate the building, and then give the oversized building to Miscavige. Miscavige turns around and leases this large building back to the local church for lots of money. This means the local Scientologists are paying for the new buildings twice! The local church must shoulder the increased lease and the increased burden of maintaining a huge building when they couldn't even afford to maintain the smaller quarters! This "false expansion" inevitably makes the church's struggle for survival much harder. Closing churches, long forbidden under Hubbard, has become common under Miscavige (spun as "combining resources" by Miscavige).

Scientologists: You are supposed to defend what Ron created from any alteration! You are supposed to ensure that someone doesn't come along and destroy all that Hubbard built and all that you believe in. That is supposed to be your job and your most solemn duty as set out in "Keeping Scientology Working".

Scientologists: If you honor L. Ron Hubbard, what are you doing allowing Miscavige to destroy all that Hubbard built?

What is your excuse? You weren't paying attention? You forgot? You believed Miscavige and forgot to look for yourself? Someone else was supposed to do that? You were afraid that David Miscavige would punish you for disagreeing with him?

Don't say you didn't notice anything! These are massive changes. The entire structure of the Church of Scientology is collapsing. You are letting it happen. LRH left you with that very specific responsibility and you failed.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The Church of Scientology is known for making quite grandiose claims for their technology. According to their press releases and statements, every single thing produced by L. Ron Hubbard or David Miscavige is the best thing, ever!

Sometimes they include intentionally vague statements. Here is an example as noted on studytech.org:

In New Zealand, students in a girls school showed an increase of twelve IQ points on the Otis Lennon Mental Ability Test after completing a course based on Mr. Hubbard's learning methods.

As pointed out in the careful analysis on that site, the "proof" is carefully worded so that it cannot be verified. Which school? Which students? When? What were the parameters, what were the checks and processes of verification? Nothing can be verified.

However, most times, the church's bare-faced claims just hang out there in their press releases, unsubstantiated, unverified, unprovable.

"Scientology works!"

"People are helped!"

"The community has benefited ... !"

"Scientology was honored ... !"

"People welcomed Scientology ... !"

"Ten million Scientologists ... !"

"100,000 Volunteer Ministers ... !"

"Effective drug solutions ... !"

And, we have to ask, "Why is all proof for the church's claims missing?"

Why doesn't the Church of Scientology just go ahead and provide the proof. They claim their technology is so fantastic; they claim Hubbard used "scientific principles" in developing Scientology; they claim they have many "case studies"; they claim the results are 100% attainable by anyone; they claim all those fantastic results and benefits are verifiable. Well, they must have some proof of this. They wouldn't make such sweeping claims if it weren't true, would they?

This, by the way, is one of the primary benefits of cloaking Scientology as a religion, they don't have to toe the line on the "false advertising" laws. They can claim a whole lot of blue sky things without having to actually produce those results.

They never, ever, ever provide any proof of anything they say. Now, isn't that odd? (Yes, that was tongue-in-cheek.)

Now, of course, this isn't about some person's individual, spiritual, now-I-feel-wonderful sensation after something Scientological. That's personal belief and, by definition, unprovable. If someone believes they had that kind of result, well, that's fine, and it's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about the Church of Scientology's fantastic claims about Hubbard's Study Tech. We're talking about their claims for Hubbard's "Way to Happiness" booklet. We're talking about their claims for Narconon and Hubbard's detoxification "Purification Rundown" and we're talking about so many more of the church's "We're saving the world!" claims.

We're talking about all those claims that have no proof!

There are some stories about this.

A number of years ago, when I was safely in the bosom of the church, we were electrified by some "confidential news" (accompanied with, of course, a request for more money). The church was setting up a real, independent, scientific study of the Purification Rundown! This would definitively prove to all those doubting critics that Hubbard's Purification Rundown really works! Oh, yes, this would do it!

Months passed. Then more months. Then we forgot all about it. It was only after I left the bubble that I heard what happened. The story is that the real, independent, scientific study actually had been done. And the results had shown, without any doubt, that Hubbard's Purification Rundown simply did not work!

Mind you, the church didn't stop selling the Purification Rundown. They didn't stop claiming that it amazingly detoxified people. It is still mandatory for all Scientologists who want to go "up the Bridge", even when their very own scientific proof says it doesn't work.

There is another rumor of a "highly confidential" and expensive expedition to "clear Hubbard's good name." Hubbard had claimed to have sunk two Japanese subs off the U.S. West Coast during World War II. An official inquiry at the time found that there were no submarines and that Hubbard had made a major and embarrassing mistake. The story is that the Church of Scientology mounted a secret expedition, armed with the very latest technology, to locate the remains of those subs and vindicate their founder. But, as hard as they tried, the expedition found absolutely no proof. Big oops! These results have been kept secret because what they did end up proving was that Hubbard was incompetent! Super big oops!

And so it goes. Every time the church tries to create real, independent, verifiable, scientific proof, they fail. Worse, they end up proving the opposite of what they claimed! You'd think they would get the idea and, at least, scale back a bit on their grandiose claims. You'd think.

But, no. They can't produce any evidence that their claims are at all valid so ... they fake it! They continue with their broad, sweeping, bloated claims, carefully worded to imply there is proof, but never, ever, ever providing any.

Only a Scientologist, trained to never question, trained to never look, trained to ignore any contradictions, is consistently fooled by these church pronouncements.

The well-substantiated proofs of the Church of Scientology's lies, crimes, abuses and fraud exist all over the Internet.

The claims of the Church of Scientology's vast benefits are also spread widely by the church, but what is blatantly missing is any Church of Scientology proof of their claims!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Now, I'm not the world's best example of how to handle Scientology's trolls, but I have observed a few things that I'd like to mention. These are things I've learned over time and that I wish I could keep in mind when I respond to trolls. Sometimes I do.

The wrong thing to do when you run into someone who you suspect is a Scientology troll is get into a heated argument. This is what they want: A flame war, a diversion.

Here are some things I have found more or less workable:

Try to be courteous and polite. It contrasts nicely with their abusive and illogical posts. When they use gross insults, and (hopefully) you haven't, point this out, it's worth highlighting.

Do not let them derail the thread. This is their job so don't let them do it. Point out that they need to post their (off-topic) comment on a different, more appropriate thread and then you bring the discussion back to the main subject -- usually something the Church of Scientology wants to hide. If you consistently and repeatedly do just this, they are defeated.

Know your data. Include links to the facts available on the Internet. We know that trolls can't go and look, but the other readers can and will get the facts.

When the troll makes their claims or accusations, demand proof. They will not give you any so keep asking, it drives them crazy. If they do provide some bogus "proof", debunk it with links and then demand "valid proof this time". Keep saying, "You claimed X, so you need to prove it!" They really hate it when you keep returning to the exact thread they have worked so hard to derail.

Admit it when you're wrong. If you've made an incorrect statement, admit it and correct it. It contrasts nicely with the troll's inability to admit any error no matter how well debunked.

If the troll is off-topic, abusive, insulting, etc. you do not have to respond at all. If they are not participating in the real discussion, why follow them down their little rabbit hole?

This leads to: The troll is not in charge, don't act like he/she is. The troll will demand that you answer their abusive and off-topic comments. They use various tricks from L. Ron Hubbard to try to "control" you. But those tricks don't work, they are not in charge, and you can do whatever you want. You could simply say "Why are you avoiding the subject?" or some such, or just ignore them.

While it may be quite satisfying to get into a flame war with the Scientology troll, realize that this is their job and their intention. If they successfully muddy and distract a discussion of Church of Scientology's crimes, they will have fulfilled their purpose.

Not all people who defend the Church of Scientology are Scientology trolls. For many people, attacking a church, any church, is just wrong. If the only thing a person has seen/heard/read is the Church of Scientology's lies, they will believe that the church is good and the attackers are evil. This is another good reason to be courteous and polite. Provide links to the truth. I realize that Scientology trolls sometimes pretend to be this kind of person, but even in that case, your being polite and providing links won't hurt the discussion.

The Scientology trolls love to equate criticism of the organization, Church of Scientology, with intolerance of the belief system of Scientology. They seek to hide the abuse and crimes of the church behind the cloak of religion. This is a ploy that many, many people fall for. Unfortunately, some newby critics of Scientology make this same mistake. A small number of newby critics of Scientology do attack the belief system of Scientology, sometimes even neglecting the crimes of the organization. While it may be entertaining to make fun of Scientologist's beliefs (and some are quite strange), if you do this, and someone accuses you of being "intolerant of another's beliefs," well, I'm sorry, but they are right.

In any case, please don't you equate the two, that's just playing into the Church of Scientology's game. Keep the two things separate. The fact that the belief system of Scientology is very weird is not the reason and has never been the reason that the Church of Scientology is being attacked. Always be very clear: The belief system of Scientology, wacky or not, is up to the individual. They do have the right to believe as they wish.* On the other hand, the organization of the Church of Scientology is a criminal and abusive organization and its leader, David Miscavige, and all others responsible, have no right to get away with that abuse, "religion" or not. There is no "right to abuse people" in Scientology. They must and will be brought to justice.

While I'm no great expert, I do know that the Scientology trolls are trying to control the Internet and suppress the truth. If you fall for the troll's tricks, they move toward that goal. If you simply continue to expose the crimes, abuses, fraud and lies of the Church of Scientology, the Scientology trolls lose, the church loses and, eventually, the organization will fold and the criminals will go to jail.

Footnote:* While people do have the right to believe whatever they want, they should be well and truly informed of all the facts before they buy into any belief system. This does not happen in Scientology. It is important to realize that a majority of Scientologists do not know the seriously wacky stuff. Most Scientologists are sincere people who were lured into Scientology with a few, carefully selected, acceptable bits. Many joined before a lot of this other data was widely available on the Internet.

Attacking Scientologists only plays into the Church of Scientology's game of "them against us." It would be more accurate and more useful to frame the conflict as "honest people -- non-Scientologists, ex-Scientologists and Scientologists -- against the corruption in the Church of Scientology". Scientologists are simply future allies against that corruption. When they finally learn the truth, they, too, join the fight against Church of Scientology corruption. After all, that is why the leaders of the church work so hard to keep them in the dark.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Troll: A user of a newsgroup, forum or message board who posts messages with the intent of inciting an argument or flame-war.

If you spend any time browsing the Internet, you have undoubtedly run into trolls, those people who post comments on forums, message boards and newsgroups that contain inflammatory, false and/or misleading information. Usually, the intention is to trick other users into getting into endless and useless arguments.

With Church of Scientology trolls, they have the added intentions to:

Divert attention from all the negative information about the Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard.

Bury negative information about the church under random, off-topic comments.

Fake outrageous, crazy and embarrassing comments, allegedly from Scientology critics but actually from the Scientology trolls.

They have orders and they have an agenda. The basic job of the Scientology trolls is to suppress the truth. They work all the time to suppress Freedom of Speech. (Just imagine the poor soul who accepts that as their job.)

Scientology's trolls appear to be similar to regular trolls or to very stupid people. It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between these different types of troublemakers.

The Scientology Troll has specific characteristics:

Always states "I am not a Scientologist".

Always parrots the Church of Scientology party line.

Always attacks anyone the church wants attacked.

Always "gets very upset" when outed as a Scientologist or an OSA troll.

They persist in forwarding the church's agenda even after all their false claims have been debunked and disproven. This is because they are not allowed to move from that position.

They claim to have read any referenced web sites containing the truth about the Church of Scientology, but they remain completely ignorant of such information.

"You're a cult!" "No, you're a cult!"

The latest party line from the Church of Scientology is for their OSA trolls to call everyone and everything a "cult". The attempt, apparently, is to water the word down into meaninglessness. Right now, the trolls call all churches "cults" and, amusingly, have even been working to brand Anonymous as a "cult".

This has the hallmarks of being another "bright idea" from David Miscavige.

Destructive cults are rather few and identifying them is pretty straightforward—and the Church of Scientology does not want you looking at them with that definition in mind!

So, the big push by OSA trolls is to muddy all the discussions of Scientology crimes with this bogus and usually off-topic accusation of "you're a cult!"

"I am not a Scientologist"

This may be one of the most amusing claims of the OSA trolls. They are very, very insistent that they are not a Scientologist. If you out them as an OSA troll they get very, very upset—and loud.

Sometimes, to forward this masquerade they will even say something mildly disrespectful of the Church of Scientology (but if they mention any wrongdoing on the part of the church, it is dismissed as far in the past and well-justified).

You think "Gee, they're so insistent, maybe they aren't a Scientologist." But, you see, they hew exactly to the Church of Scientology party line. They always attack those the church wants attacked. Their only activities are to forward the Church of Scientology's agenda. Period.

There are two possibilities when someone does this consistently: Either they are an OSA troll who has specific orders, or they are very, very stupid and believe the Church of Scientology's lies. I figure I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt by calling them OSA trolls. I really hate to call someone "abysmally stupid".

Insults, not logic

You can never get an OSA troll to work through the facts logically. If you carefully document the falsity of a dozen of their claims, they will bring up a dozen more, equally false. When you carefully document those as lies, they go back to their original false claims and pretend those were never disproven. This can go on forever. They never can and never will admit that all their "facts" from the church are totally bogus.

And if you make good points and disprove their claims, they inevitably answer with ... insults! You might think you're having a rational discussion when suddenly, they will start calling you vicious, insulting names. That means you won the argument. You see, since they are required to adhere to the Church of Scientology party line, and since the party line is composed only of lies, misinformation and is totally illogical, there is no possibility they can defend their position. So, when they are totally proven wrong, what can they do? Why, throw insults and flame around to completely distract and degrade the discussion. (They seem fond of yelling "Nazi".)

The OSA trolls used to be more effective than they are today. Today, their tricks are pretty well known, and their efforts are laughable.

Scientology trolls: You lose!

For the Church of Scientology and their OSA trolls, it is a losing battle. They may temporarily divert the discussion of the church's crimes in a few forums, but the flood of facts about the Church of Scientology's crimes cannot be stopped. Their efforts are like a teaspoon against the flood. The church's trolls are the laughingstock of the Internet, easily spotted and easily handled.

The church's newest "everything is a cult" campaign will backfire, as do all of their "clever" tricks; the flood of truth will continue.

The truth about the Church of Scientology is known. And, boy, do they hate that!-

Thursday, July 3, 2008

To become a Scientologist, you must have one primary belief. Without it, you can never become a Scientologist. With it, you are golden.

You must believe that L. Ron Hubbard is All-Knowing, All-Seeing, Perfect and Always Right.

And they do. Completely.

You see, this is the very first lesson you learn in Scientology. At the start of each and every course you take, you must first understand and agree with Hubbard's Policy Letter "Keeping Scientology Working". In this policy letter, Hubbard modestly states that he has all the answers, that he is the only one who hasthese answers, that it is impossible for anyone to improve on his answers and that anyone who disagrees with all that is a very, very bad person, who must be stopped. I'm paraphrasing.

Once you've completely understood and agreed with that policy letter, you are allowed to continue on to the course material. Every course starts with this policy letter.

And the proof that Hubbard, or the Church of Scientology, or anyone gives that Hubbard was, is and will always be right is:

(absolutely nothing)

Yes, that's right, nobody has ever presented any evidence that Hubbard has these powers of always being right and knowing everything.

It is belief, in the purest sense of that word. Absolute, complete, perfect belief that "Hubbard is always right!"

This is why it is impossible to argue with a Scientologist. It goes like this:

You: The Church of Scientology has committed crimes, abuses, fraud. It lies.Scientologist: Aha! It is proven that everyone who criticizes Scientology is guilty of horrible crimes for which they could be arrested, and they are all in the pay of a vast evil conspiracy. You are evil! I will destroy you!You: Umm... what proof do you have of any of that?Scientologist:Ron said it!

And there it is. How can you argue with that? That is the ultimate "proof", "Ron said it". Per that policy letter, it must be true.

To get even more weird, not only do Scientologists believe that, if Ron said it, it is true, they also believe that if Ron did not say something, it isn't true! So you get things like the Freewinds asbestos disaster. Some people are reporting that the Scientologists in charge said that since Ron never mentioned the danger of asbestos, it couldn't be harmful!

You see, Scientologists cannot do research or think about something and make up their own minds about it, they can only check with All-Knowing-Ron. If he said something, then, by golly, that's it, it's true. And outside of that, everything else is false! No thinking, no investigation, no logic, just read what Ron said and then stop. Stop investigating, stop looking, stop thinking, stop.

The really hard-core Scientologists have gotten so good at doing this that they believe they are thinking and investigating. They very carefully "think like Ron" and then "investigate" what Ron said, and then "do what Ron would do". It is very creepy.

If you're a Scientologist, then whatever Ron said must be true or you will get ... "retrained" until you can make it true for yourself. You must go through whatever convoluted, rube-goldberg, twisted type of logic to make it work out to be true. It's a skill you must develop as a Scientologist, to only see how Ron is right and be blind to anything that might show he was wrong.

Ron promised OT super powers but never, ever exhibited any such powers himself. Nor has any other Scientologist.

Ron claimed he was better at administration and organizing than any other person in the whole world, but Scientologists have to pretend, real hard, to believe the disasters he created around the world are "successful, well run organizations".

Ron spoke of a vast evil conspiracy, composed of "International Bankers", drug companies and the always-evil psychiatrists, but he never presented any evidence of its existence. He even claimed to have completely uncovered the whole evil organization, but never presented any facts at all. To this day, no one outside of Ron has ever seen any hint of such a conspiracy. But they believe.

These, and a million other claims, are accepted whole, without ever any proof, by all Scientologists. All because of that first Policy Letter on their first course. The primary belief that they learned then: Ron is always right and anyone who disagrees is not only wrong but very, very evil.-

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Frequency of articles

I know a number of people want me to write more frequently and I consider that a great compliment.

I would, but I refuse to write just for the sake of writing. I want to have something to say that is worthwhile. I've written a lot and, too often, when I'm researching something I want to say, I find I've already said it, sometimes several times.

When I started this blog, there was a lot of confusion and bad information which I intended to help clear up. I think I did that. Now there are many very fine blogs and other sources of factual information and excellent opinions. Often, when I'm researching something, I find that others have already covered it quite well.